352 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



would thus destroy in one day 5,550 eggs; and in the 

 twenty-five days in which the canker-worm moths « ' run " 

 or crawl up the trees, 138,750. It may be thought that 

 this computation is excessive, and it is probable that some 

 of the moths were not captured until they had laid some of 

 their eggs, but the chickadees were also busy eating these 

 eggs. When we consider further that 41 of these insects, 

 distended as they were with eggs, were found at one time in 

 the stomach of one chickadee, and that the digestion of the 

 bird is so rapid that its stomach was probably filled several 

 times daily, the estimate made by Mr. Bailey seems a very 

 conservative one. He now regards the chickadee as the 

 best friend the farmer has, for the reason that it is with him 

 all the year, and there is no bird that can compare w T ith it 

 in destroying the female moths and their eggs. It was 

 noticed that the birds made no attempt to catch the male 

 moths. This, however, cannot be considered as a fault, for 

 the birds accomplish far more by destroying the females 

 than they would by killing males. 



The following notes from the preliminary examinations 

 of the contents of the alimentary canal of a chickadee, made 

 by Mr. Kirkland, are of interest in this connection : — 



Bird brought in by Mr. Bailey, March 16, 1895 : Gullet empty. 

 Gizzard contained 270 canker-worm eggs (Anisopteryx pometaria) , 

 46 case-bearers (microlepidoptera), 6 cocoons of a small tineid 

 (near Aspidisca) . These three kinds of food in bulk composed 

 80 per cent of the gizzard contents, the remainder being dark 

 material which I was unable to determine under a hand lens. I 

 think it very probable that part of this was bits of bark or parti- 

 cles of bark-dust taken in with the eggs or cocoons. The intes- 

 tine contained a large quantity of meat, 75 per cent, and 103 

 canker-worm eggs, 10 per cent; the remainder, 15 per cent, being 

 material which I could not identify. It was not meat. This 

 gives us as totals, 373 canker-worm eggs and 52 microlepidoptera. 



Specimens of so-called "scales" on apple twigs brought in by 

 Mr. Bailey, March 12, 1895. These are not bark lice, but the 

 cocoons of a microlepidopteron, probably a tineid. Length, J 5 to 

 I inch; width, T J 2 to T V inch; elliptical, dark brown or reddish 

 brown. They are closely spun, the upper surface apparently 

 being of leaf epidermis, while underneath is a small, well-formed 



